Chapter Nine: Missing

“The amount of freedom Lin Zhen enjoys in your family is truly remarkable!” Yan Xue exclaimed with admiration.

She was only slightly older than Lin Zhen. As a girl herself, Yan’s parents had always been relatively lenient, granting her plenty of space to make her own choices. Yet the level of uninhibited liberty Lin Zhen possessed was something Yan Xue could never have imagined, let alone experienced herself.

“We’re so busy running our business,” Lin Zhen’s father sighed, “that we rarely have time to spend with our child. We feel guilty about it, so whenever circumstances allow, we let her do as she pleases. After all, she’s our only child—everything we have belongs to her!

Back in our youth, conditions were nowhere nearly as good. We were poor, and in the prime of life, we lacked everything—food, clothing, you name it. Now that we’re older and finally have the means, it’s too late to make up for what we missed.”

Lin Zhen’s father spoke with a trace of melancholy, reflecting on his own material deprivation in his younger days. He rubbed his face and continued, “So, when it comes to Zhen Zhen, my wife and I agreed early on that we would never let her suffer—not especially as a girl. She should be cherished and raised in comfort and wealth! No matter what she eats, wears, or uses, we make sure our daughter gets the very best within our ability.

Neither of us was ever particularly good at school, and our child takes after us, so we don’t expect her to have grand ambitions or become some pillar of society. All we want is for her to live happily—that’s worth more than anything else!”

“Lin Zhen must have graduated from university two or three years ago, right? Has she ever worked anywhere?” Yan Xue asked.

“Well… I don’t think so…” Lin Zhen’s father replied, a little embarrassed. “You must find it funny, don’t you? She’s already a grown woman, and still hasn’t settled down with a proper job… Our Zhen Zhen does love to play; she can’t sit still. I once tried to arrange a managerial position for her at a friend’s hotel, but she refused, saying the salary was too low and she’d have to stay there all day. So she didn’t go.”

Twenty-four years old, a wealthy second generation, with no steady job, a complicated social circle, and parents who know little about her actual circumstances, interfering even less—she enjoys considerable financial freedom, lives in a luxury home, and drives a fancy car.

Lin Zhen’s situation could only be described as a tempting prize in the eyes of those with ill intentions.

Lin Zhen’s mother spent a long time making phone calls, finally returning with a worried look and shaking her head at the others. “I called around to Zhen Zhen’s close friends—none of them know where she’s gone. One was even worse, claiming she was with Zhen Zhen right now. When I pressed her, she admitted she was lying, saying she just wanted to help Zhen Zhen because she saw how worried I was and was afraid I’d scold her. So she lied for her!”

“Have you contacted everyone you could? Is there anyone else in Lin Zhen’s contacts whom you know, and who’s close to her?” Yan Xue reminded Lin Zhen’s mother to expand her search. “What about relatives? Is there any family member she’s particularly close with?”

“Relatives? Oh! Yes, yes, there is one! I almost forgot if you hadn’t mentioned it! Zhen Zhen is especially close to her cousin from my sister’s family. Even though they live in different places, they keep in touch often!

When Zhen Zhen did anything behind our backs as a child, none of the other adults knew—but her cousin always did! Wait here, I’ll call her right now!” Lin Zhen’s mother, suddenly remembering, hurriedly pulled out her phone to find the number.

Reaching out to Lin Zhen’s cousin took some time and effort. At first, Lin Zhen’s mother found her old number had long been deactivated. She had to contact her sister to get the new one, and when she finally reached her niece, the girl was as clueless as Lin Zhen’s friends.

But her tone sounded less than sincere.

Luckily, this was her own niece, so Lin Zhen’s mother had no qualms about scolding her over the phone, telling her that something serious had happened at home. If she knew where Lin Zhen had gone, she had to tell them immediately or it would be disastrous.

Seeing the urgency, her niece finally admitted that she only knew what Lin Zhen was up to, not her exact location or how to contact her.

Lin Zhen’s mother, anxious beyond measure, pressed her niece for answers. Eventually, she learned that Lin Zhen had gone off on a low-budget trip with someone else. As for who she was with, and why she left her phone at home, her cousin could offer no answers.

Lin Zhen’s mother now panicked. The calm she had forced herself to maintain after confronting the deceased vanished, and she became incoherent. In the end, Kang Ge took over the call, first introducing himself to establish authority and gain cooperation, then proceeding to ask questions methodically.

With him in charge, the efficiency of the conversation improved dramatically. Though Lin Zhen’s whereabouts remained uncertain, he managed to obtain a few clues that might help locate her.

First, on the day Lin Zhen left, she called her cousin to say she was going on a budget trip with some new friends, about to meet up and depart together. She didn’t mention who the friends were, and her cousin didn’t press for details, doubting it was anything serious. But Lin Zhen, erring on the side of caution, gave her cousin the license plate number of the car they’d be traveling in, which her cousin saved in her phone’s notes.

Second, Lin Zhen had a bank card opened under her cousin’s ID—a secret account she used to save money for things her parents might not approve of. Only her cousin knew about it; no one else did. While her cousin couldn’t recall the card number, she could specify the bank branch.

With these two crucial pieces of information, Kang Ge sent colleagues to escort Lin Zhen’s parents to the reception room to rest and wait, while he and Yan Xue got to work. One focused on tracing the car owner using the license plate and monitoring its route via traffic surveillance; the other checked with the bank for any recent transactions on the secret card, noting the times and locations.

Both were reasonably confident in their investigation, unlike Lin Zhen’s parents, who panicked upon hearing she’d gone backpacking.

Though a license plate and a bank card might seem minor clues, they were actually significant.

Lin Zhen’s cousin said the day Lin Zhen told her about the trip was just five days ago. From their conversation, it was clear that, since it was a budget trip, they wouldn’t be driving themselves everywhere—the car was only a means of local transport, and afterwards they’d switch to other modes. Without their own vehicle, if it really was a budget trip, expensive options like flights or high-speed trains would be off the table. They’d likely use buses or slow trains, which would limit their travel range and speed.

Five days wasn’t enough time to reach the ends of the earth—she couldn’t have gotten too far.

Raised in comfort all her life, Lin Zhen was essentially a hothouse flower. For someone like her, a spontaneous budget trip was more an artistic impulse than a practical plan; she might well give up halfway.

Clearly, Lin Zhen knew herself well, so she took her secret “stash” along, probably fearing she couldn’t handle the hardships and would need money to escape.

As for why she didn’t bring her own bank card but instead used one under her cousin’s name, that would have to be clarified once Lin Zhen herself was found.

They split up their tasks. Kang Ge traced the car owner and, using highway toll records and other sources, followed the vehicle’s route. He discovered the car had spent over a day traveling and ended up in a city more than six hundred kilometers from W City, after which it left no further departure records.

The car’s owner was a local from that city. Could it be that the driver brought the group to his hometown and then parted ways with them?

Kang Ge quickly called the car owner, and sure enough, his guess was correct. The owner had met one of the young travelers by chance, who offered to pay for a ride to his hometown, sharing the fuel costs. The owner, seeing it as a win-win, agreed. His SUV had seven seats, and with himself included, the car was full when they left W City. After reaching his hometown, the six passengers departed together, and he went home, losing touch with them.

He vaguely recalled the young travelers chatting in the car about buying tickets to another place next, debating whether to go direct or make stops on the way. The discussion continued up until they parted, without reaching a conclusion.

Fortunately, the driver remembered their names. When Kang Ge asked for them, he found Lin Zhen’s name wasn’t among them. He described Lin Zhen’s appearance, and the owner confirmed she was in his car, sitting in the last row, looking dissatisfied, not as cheerful or familiar with the others as the rest.

But at this point, Kang Ge’s investigation hit a dead end. Even with the names, he had no information about their ages, backgrounds, or appearances, making it nearly impossible to track their movements.

Luckily, Yan Xue hadn’t been idle. She returned with the recent transaction records from the bank card under Lin Zhen’s cousin’s name. Though there weren’t many, the few withdrawals and card swipes provided several distinct locations.

Based on these, Lin Zhen didn’t seem to be heading towards a popular tourist destination with the others, as the driver had suggested, but was instead preparing to return to W City from over six hundred kilometers away.

Kang Ge reviewed the withdrawal records. Starting three days ago, the cousin’s account had four transactions—one card swipe and three cash withdrawals. The first two withdrawals were in a certain county, the amounts were small. The third was in Y City, adjacent to W City, less than three hundred kilometers away, similar in size. There, she withdrew the maximum allowed by the ATM.

“How many women were among the names the driver gave me? What were their names?” Kang Ge sorted through the timing, locations, and amounts, then sat at the computer, opening the system and asking Yan Xue.

Yan Xue glanced at his notes. “There were three men and three women. The girls were Zhou Qi, Anna, and Bai Yue Ni.”

“Check if any of these three checked into a hotel in Y City!” Kang Ge’s frown relaxed. “If I’m not mistaken, Lin Zhen should be staying at a hotel in Y City right now!

The first two withdrawals, the amounts were odd—probably pooled for travel expenses among the six.

The second withdrawal was closer to Y City, and the amount didn’t differ much from the previous, only five hundred yuan—likely after splitting from the group, Lin Zhen, alone in a small county, didn’t dare take much cash, just enough for basic transport.

When she reached Y City, she withdrew the maximum allowed. It couldn’t have been for a ticket back to W City, since the trip is so short that such an amount isn’t needed. I suspect she found a decent hotel in Y City and checked in alone.”